Los Angeles history

Wife Divorces ‘Girlish’ Army Officer

November 21, 2009 | 4:00
am

“When a Feller Needs a Friend,” by Clare Briggs

Nov. 21, 1919: Lucille Howell seeks a divorce from her husband, an Army captain who likes to wear a girdle.

"You know I always wanted a form like yours. You just wait until I accomplish the development that I want to. I tell you, honey, you will have quite a girl for your hubby,” Capt. Clarence Howell wrote. Capt. Howell appealed to the head of the Daughters of the American Revolution to arrange a reconciliation, but the attempt failed.

In one letter, Mrs. Howell called her husband a “sissy.” "He replied that if he got the figure he wanted, he did not see that it called for mean things on his wife's part," The Times said.